Wire taps and informants bring down drug ring
-court papers reveal
Stabroek News
May 2, 2004
In order to crack a Guyanese drug ring, US agents tapped the telephones of defendants and relied heavily on informants already nabbed with drugs.
Agents also used a translator as they often found it difficult to understand the Guyanese conversations.
The two-year surveillance eventually led to the arrests of 11 individuals on April 5 and the cracking of a drug-trafficking and money-laundering ring.
Affidavits were prepared by the officers of the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in support of warrants for the arrest of the persons.
Those arrested are Delvin Adams, Intaz Ali, Shafeek Ali, Zaman Ashraf, Jerome Brown, Bretnol Raul Hooper, Pooran Khublall, and Okobo Vieira, who are alleged to have distributed cocaine for the ring, primarily in Brooklyn and Queens, New York; Dorian Caldeira and Dino Sattaur who allegedly participated in the drug importation and wired drug proceeds from Queens, New York, to Guyana; and Azaam Khan who is alleged to have conspired to purchase cocaine in Queens, New York, from the ring. Between June 2002 and June 2003, these defendants were responsible for distributing and/or importing into the United States approximately 70 kilogrammes of cocaine.
In relation to Khublall, also known as `Tex,' in January an informant, after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to import cocaine into the US, told officials that he had arranged for a sale of one kilogramme of cocaine to the accused. The informant also disclosed that they arranged for another individual to take the cocaine to the defendant's bridal shop on at least two occasions.
The defendant's bridal shop, Tex and Deb Tux and Bridal Wear Associates, located at 135-01 Liberty Avenue, Richmond Hill, New York, was approached by an undercover ICE agent on January 21 and Khublall identified himself as `Tex,' the owner. A ledger kept by the informant had telephone numbers for the defendant.
Brown was nabbed after an informant said they sold him approximately four kilos of cocaine and that the defendant had recruited an individual who worked as a courier, importing cocaine from Guyana to the US. The courier was subsequently arrested attempting to import cocaine from St Maarten.
In September 2003, the officials recorded conversations between the informant and the defendant, and during one of those conversations the defendant discussed the difficulty that he was having recruiting couriers. During one of the conversations the defendant discussed in sum and substance, the possibility of purchasing cocaine from the informant.
The informant's ledger revealed that Brown purchased approximately two or three kilogrammes of cocaine from them between November 2002 and June 2003, and that the defendant purchased approximately 280 grammes of cooked cocaine on December 20, 2002.
And Vieira also known as `Cobo' and Hooper attempted to assist the organisation's importation of cocaine into the US since it was revealed that an informant had stated that they sold approximately five to six kilogrammes of cocaine to Vieira in Queens, New York.
Also that they conspired with Hooper to import some 12 kilogrammes of cocaine into the US in January 2003 and that the defendant attempted to import the cocaine through a cargo shipping company at JFK and also based in Guyana. The two worked at the shipping company, the affidavit said.
On January 28, 2003, a customs inspector at JFK seized a shipment of cocaine from Guyana on a North American Airlines flight after a dog from the Customs and Border Protection canine team was alerted to a particular package. The package contained cocaine concealed within six cans of what appeared to be ghee, and the cocaine weighed 12.4 kgs. Records proved that Hooper was a passenger on the said flight and that some 20 phone calls were made between the informant and Hooper, and seven to Vieira's phone.
Khan, who is also known as Darrel Khan and `Dino,' allegedly assisted a US official informant in September 2003 with the importation of cocaine from Guyana. The defendant had approached the informant who is a Guyanese national in the US on a non-immigrant visa and who was under house arrest with electronic monitoring because of past arrests.
A number of calls were recorded between the two and they discussed a number of different possible ways to import cocaine into the US, including the possibility of using Evergreen, a cargo shipping company that operates at JFK, and the possibility that the defendant would recruit couriers to import cocaine into the US from Guyana. A number of baggage handlers from Evergreen were arrested on November 25 as part of a separate drug bust by New York police.
The agents taped a conversation between Khan and the informant which they allege shows that Khan arranged to buy 1.5 kg of cocaine. The defendant at one point is recorded saying: "Yes, he wanted to grab one thing and the next guy wants a half of a thing and s***."
It was found that Dorian Caldeira and Dino Sattaur were identified by an informant as being involved in the importation of cocaine from Guyana to the US and related money-laundering activities.
The informant disclosed that about October 2003 they were tasked with going to JFK to pick up a courier who was bringing a load of cocaine from Guyana and was accompanied by Caldeira who was aware of the purpose of the trip.
Sattaur was also sent to Guyana by a drug importer for the purpose of smuggling cocaine into the US in June 2002, which was secreted in three cans of ghee.
The informant picked up Sattaur from the airport when he returned to the US and took the cocaine to the importer's home.
The two also assisted the informant and a known drug trafficker in money laundering by sending money to a man and his wife in Guyana via Western Union wire transmittals.
According to records obtained from Western Union between August 2003 and November 2003 Caldeira wired some $15,000 to the man in Guyana and Sattaur sent $12,900 to the man's wife, both of whose names were listed in the affidavit.